Movie review: Thin Ice

Bizarre tonal shifts doom Thin Ice.

Tone can be a tricky thing to grasp in a film. Actors’ inflections, music, editing choices, and numerous other elements can change a movie from what it was supposed to be into something completely different. In that respect, the title of Thin Ice is an unintended double entendre, as the film often finds itself having to tread carefully to avoid upsetting the balance – and usually failing.

Mickey (Greg Kinnear) is a small-time insurance agent in Wisconsin who’s always on the prowl for his next sucker customer. He thinks he’s found just such a person in Gorvy Hauer (Alan Arkin), a seemingly-senile farmer. Gorvy, however, soon becomes a big part of Mickey’s life, asking for help with mundane things, something Mickey is only too happy to do if it means the possibility of selling Gorvy more insurance. On one of his many trips, Mickey discovers that Gorvy owns a valuable violin, a finding that sets into motion a series of events involving that leads Mickey to take risks he normally would never make.

From the start, Thin Ice gives off a distinct whiff of being Fargo-lite, a comparison that only gets stronger as the film goes along. The setting, the desperate small-town man, poor decisions that quickly spiral out of control – it’s like writer/director Jill Sprecher (with a writing assist from her sister, Karen) had just watched Fargo and said, “I can do that.” The only part she forgot to include was the Coen Brothers’ balance of tone. Much of Thin Ice plays like a broad comedy, complete with jaunty soundtrack. But it also contains jarring dramatic shifts, only to just as quickly go back to lightness. As Fargo showed, a good balance between humor and darkness can work, but Sprecher never achieves anything close to that.

Don't expect to see this duo until halfway through the film.

Sprecher could use a lesson in pacing as well. She takes an inordinate amount of time setting up Mickey’s growing relationship with Gorvy, to the point that a key character played by Billy Crudup doesn’t show up until halfway through the film. Crudup’s late introduction also illustrates another of Sprecher’s mistakes – telegraphing the film’s twist and turns. Any careful viewer will be able to predict where the plot is heading well before it gets there, something that doesn’t speak well to Sprecher’s ability to craft a good suspense.

Kinnear is actually decent as Mickey, as he easily displays both the smarminess necessary for his job and the addled demeanor of someone who’s in well over his head. Arkin uses what sounds like a German accent, which makes him sound more like a caricature than anything else. Crudup gets several opportunities to fly off the handle, something, along with a droopy mustache, he wears well. Lea Thompson chips in a meaningless role as Mickey’s wife.

Right from the start, the tone of Thin Ice gets completely muddled. Its humorous moments are never all that funny, and its darker scenes are too out-of-left-field to yield anything more than baffled responses. Perhaps if Sprecher had tried to make something original rather than Fargo redux, she could have succeeded.

For showtimes for Thin Ice, click here.